Digital Commons Network^™

A Culture Divided: How Irish Americans Responded To Ireland’S Wartime Neutrality, Robert J. Barron

Honors College Theses

In the Second World War, the nation of Ireland declared its neutrality and maintained this status through the course of the long conflict. Meanwhile, Germany, Great Britain, and eventually the United States all competed to gain Ireland’s support in the war. However, one overlooked group continued to keep tabs on the affairs within their homeland: Irish Americans. How does one respond to a nation you have a connection with staying neutral in such a deadly conflict? The answer, for Irish Americans, was that it depended on the year. Before the United States entered the war, Irish Americans firmly defended the …

Student Perceptions Of The Community Of Inquiry In Online Human Anatomy And Physiology Discussion Boards Using 2-D And 3-D Anatomical Models, Timothy J. Mcguire

EVMS School of Health Professions Theses & Dissertations

Online human anatomy and physiology (HA&P) courses require students to learn complex anatomical content outside of a physical laboratory environment, a challenge that may be supported by enhancing students’ perceptions of collaborative learning (CL) through the community of inquiry (CoI) framework. This convergent parallel mixed-methods study examined participants’ perceptions of the CoI framework during two discussion board (DB) activities in an online, asynchronous, noncredit HA&P I study course at a midwestern community college.

Participants were recruited via convenience sampling and randomly assigned to one of two instructional sequence groups (2-D→3-D or 3-D→2-D) to complete two DB activities requiring annotation of …

Investigating The Effects Of Depth And Distance On Jumping Decisions, Ean Fisher

Honors Theses

For an actor to accurately perceive if a gap affords crossing, they must consider environmental constraints, particularly spatial dimensions like gap depth and gap width, and their own physical capabilities, as determined by body/action-scaled information, namely body height and jumping ability. Prior research has examined the gap-crossing affordance across various contexts (real-world, augmented reality, and virtual reality). However, no research has investigated the gap-crossing affordance through performing a standing jump estimation within VR. The present study investigated how depth and width influence the perception of gap-crossing, operationalized as the act of performing a standing jump across a gap within a …

An Exploratory Analysis Of Student Attitudes Towards Punishment: Punitive Vs Rehabilitative Orientations, Leah Johnson

Honors Theses

This study examined differences in punishment orientation among undergraduate students, paying particular attention to variations across academic major, degree progression, and connectivity to law enforcement and corrections. This study explored how individual characteristics may influence attitudes toward crime and appropriate punishment. Data were collected through surveys which were administered in person to students enrolled in criminal justice or social science courses at the University of Southern Mississippi. Participants were asked to rate their level of agreement on a variety of statements regarding punishment. These responses were used to calculate punitive and rehabilitative orientation scores. Statistical analyses were conducted to test …

Competitive Reaction Pathways In The Fully Green Synthesis And Surface Modification Of Silver Nanowires Under L-Ascorbic Acid-Limited Conditions, Finley Neal

Honors Theses

Silver nanowires (AgNWs) are critical building blocks for transparent conductive films (TCFs) in flexible electronics, yet their commercial viability is hindered by environmentally hazardous, energy-intensive synthesis methods and limited intrinsic chemical stability. This study investigated a fully green, room-temperature (25℃) batch synthesis of pristine AgNWs using tannic acid as a biodegradable dual reducing and capping agent under strict kinetic pH control (pH 1.25). To enhance oxidative resistance, a subsequent surface modification protocol was evaluated to deposit a protective palladium (Pd) shell using L-ascorbic acid (LAA) as a secondary reducing agent. The pristine green synthesis yielded one-dimensional Ag nanostructures with a …

Knowledge Distillation From A Large Vision-Language Model To Compact Students For Architectural Floor Plan Understanding, Kiran Silwal

Honors Theses

In this research, the use of a large vision-language model to train smaller, deployable models for architectural floor plan question answering is investigated. Reading a floor plan today requires either a human expert or a paid query to a proprietary model, and neither option is practical for real-estate platforms that must process thousands of units at scale. To address this problem, a knowledge distillation approach is employed in which a large teacher model (GPT-4.1-mini) generates labeled question-answer pairs from floor plan images, and smaller student models learn from those labels. The teacher produced 37,027 labeled pairs from 12,343 floor plan …

Ai-Assisted 3d Pre-Visualization: Streamlining Animatics For Filmmakers, Nishit Thapa

Honors Theses

Pre-visualization is a core part of film pre-production. Creators use it to test blocking, lighting, camera movement, and spatial relationships before committing to a shot. Despite this, three-dimensional pre-visualization remains out of reach for many entry-level filmmakers, as the software is expensive and takes substantial time to learn.

Recent AI developments have produced generative systems capable of creating highly re-alistic imagery and video from text prompts. These systems open new possibilities for visual sto-rytelling but are not built for the iterative, hands-on process that pre-visualization requires, where creators must adjust scene parameters, camera logic, and spatial configurations throughout.

This thesis …

Evaluating Predictive Structure In Penny Stocks Using Machine Learning And Statistical Methods, Susom Hait

Honors Theses

Market prediction attempts have primarily focused on large-cap stocks due to their stability and market consistency. As such, studies that use time-series techniques to predict large-cap stocks have produced consistent results. Despite the success of large-cap predictions, penny stocks have remained unexplored in modern academia due to their high volatility, low liquidity, and structural instability. Regardless, unexplored market potential and technological advancements underscore the need for preliminary research into penny stock forecasting. This study aims to determine whether meaningful predictive structures exist in time-series penny stock data. This study utilizes an incremental approach. Various penny stocks were selected, pooled, and …

Sustainable Finance: An Analysis Of Climate-Resilient Infrastructure Investments, Ngan Trat

Honors Theses

Changes in climate conditions are reshaping our environments and impacting ecosystems. A product of these changes is worsening climate events, and for Mississippi, that means increasingly frequent, high-intensity storms and floods. Its immediate and residual effects can range from disruptive to destructive. Mississippi and its communities are highly vulnerable to the effects of intense natural disasters, and there is a discrepancy between the need for climate-resilient infrastructure investments and the state’s fiscal capabilities to finance the research and construction of such projects. This paper will evaluate existing cases of climate-resilient infrastructure in effect through a sustainable finance lens and identify …

Digital Preservation Policies In University Libraries: A Content Analysis, Ramsey Mcmanus

Honors Theses

In an increasingly digital world, libraries continue to expand their digital collections. As these collections grow, librarians must work to ensure that these digital materials remain accessible over time. Having clearly articulated digital preservation policies helps libraries define their preservation commitments and establish guidelines for preservation actions. This study examines how university libraries approach digital preservation through their policies, focusing on those that are publicly available and accessible online. The content of these policies is evaluated against commonly recognized elements of digital preservation planning, including preservation scope, metadata practices, integrity checking, storage redundancy, and format migration. These criteria are derived …

Synthesis And Photophysical Studies Of Coumarin-Quinoline Derivatives, Nishrenika Pokhrel

Honors Theses

A new family of oxime-functionalized coumarin-quinoline derivatives, 5a and 5b, has been synthesized through a five-step procedure in high yields (45-98%). Compound 5a is designed as the sensing probe, while 5b serves as a model system to support mechanistic understanding. The sensing approach is based on the reactivity of the oxime group, which can undergo phosphorylation in the presence of organophosphate nerve agents. Based on this behavior, it is hypothesized that 5a can react irreversibly with a nerve agent mimic. The structures were fully characterized by NMR, FTIR, and HRMS. Photophysical properties of 5a were studied in various solvents, …

Caregiver Challenges And Health Access For Individuals With Developmental Disabilities In Mississippi, Kirsten Cunningham

Honors Theses

Current literature has highlighted the health disparities faced by individuals within the disability community and how it affects the care they receive. However, for many individuals with developmental disabilities, they require caregivers to make medical decisions for them. The purpose of this study is to focus on the caregiver’s perspective of caregiver stress, physical access to care, and health literacy to combat the challenges faced when getting access to healthcare resources for individuals with developmental disabilities in Mississippi. The researcher hypothesized, based on the literature review, that caregivers with higher levels of educational attainment would have less caregiver stress, more …

Effects Of “Zero Sugar” Energy Drinks On Microbial Proliferation In Relation To The Gastrointestinal Microbiome, Madison Hines

Honors Theses

Energy drinks have rapidly increased in popularity and availability in recent years. With the rise of high-caffeine beverages, complications due to caffeine consumption have become more common in younger populations. The aim of this study was to use controlled laboratory methods to determine the effect of energy drinks on a variety of organisms commonly found in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. The diverse and dynamic nature of microbes in the gut makes conditions of the GI tract difficult to replicate in a laboratory setting. As an alternative, isolates of bacteria commonly found as normal flora in the GI tract were plated …

Quantifying The Antifungal Properties Of Bacteria Using Cotton Strips, Lily Lofton

Honors Theses

Many bacteria have been known to have antifungal properties. Research has begun to determine how these bacteria can be used to protect cotton and other cellulose-rich textiles. In the present study, standardized cotton strips were inoculated with two different bacterial consortia that have exhibited anti-fungal properties. These strips were then inoculated with the melanized cellulolytic fungi, Chaetomium globosum and Rhinocladiella similis. Similarly, some cotton strips were also inoculated with a non-melanized fungus, Rhodotorula toruloides, which is also thought to be cellulolytic. The tensile strength of cotton strips was measured along with the ergosterol concentrations (fungal biomass) for each cotton strip …

Optimizing Barley Stripped Mosaic Virus Coat Protein Stability For Palladium Nanorod Biotemplating Via Terminal His-Tag Positioning, Emilie Hayes

Honors Theses

Viral biotemplating has become an exciting approach towards the production of nanomaterials with a controlled size and morphology. Rod-shaped plant viruses provide structurally consistent scaffolds that can guide the assembly of inorganic nanostructures, which can offer a biologically inspired platform to nanoscale material design. In the current study, computational modeling was used to examine the effect of palladium precursor chemistry on the reaction with viral protein templates. Molecular dynamics simulations were performed to test the stability of the viral scaffold, and the influence of N-terminal and C-terminal His-tag on protein flexibility. These simulations revealed that the viral coat protein is …

The Spread Of Conspiracy Theories And Social Media Radicalization: “Stop The Steal” On Social Media, Zaynab Saleem

Honors Theses

This study examines how conspiracy-related content spread across social media platforms following the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, specifically the “Stop the Steal” (STS) movement. While conspiracy theories are often seen as influential on niche parts of the internet, less is known about how they compare to non-conspiracy content in terms of engagement, visibility, and how they change over time. To address this gap, this study uses a quantitative approach to compare STS and non-STS content across two distinct types of social media platforms: a text-based platform (Platform A) and a video-sharing platform (Platform B). Data was collected using keyword searches …

Deep Learning-Based Automated Pneumonia Detection From Chest X-Rays: A Comparative Study Of Custom Cnn And Transfer Learning Architectures, Ahmed Sajim

Honors Theses

Pneumonia is a leading global cause of mortality, claiming approximately 2.5 million lives an-nually and placing exceptional diagnostic pressure on radiologists in resource-limited settings. Manual interpretation of chest X-ray (CXR) images is time-consuming, subject to inter-observer variability, and limited by radiologist availability. This thesis presents a systematic investiga-tion into deep learning-based automated pneumonia detection comparing five convolutional neural network (CNN) architectures: a custom-designed 2D CNN and four pretrained transfer learning models—ResNet, DenseNet, MobileNet, and VGG19.

A targeted data augmentation pipeline addresses the severe class imbalance in the Kag-gle Chest X-Ray Pneumonia dataset, expanding the Normal class from 1,583 to 9,495 …

Cultivating Success: The Role Of Self-Determination In Autonomy For Post-Secondary Students With Disabilities, Cloè Knight

Honors Theses

Self-determination is a crucial theoretical framework influencing the post-secondary success and the quality of life for students with disabilities (SWD). A case study mixed-method design was used to investigate the lived experiences of students with disabilities and how their self-determination skills shaped by parent styles and teacher practices, impacted their success in the post-secondary world. Despite the well-researched benefits of self-determination in the lives of students with disabilities, a systematic literature review revealed important gaps in research related to the roles parents and teachers play in facilitating self-determination skills impacting post-secondary success in students with disabilities. The current study sought …

Comparing The Risk And Return Characteristics Of Ai Exchange-Traded Funds To Benchmark Stock Market Etfs, Aryan Malhotra

Honors Theses

Artificial intelligence exchange-traded funds (AI ETFs) have expanded rapidly as investors seek targeted exposure to firms developing or benefiting from AI technologies. This study compares the performance of 50 AI ETFs with two broad-market ETFs, SPY (S&P 500) and RSP (equal-weight S&P 500), from January 2018 to January 2026. AI ETFs exhibit higher expense ratios and strong correlations with both benchmarks, reflecting their concentration in large-cap technology stocks. Over the full sample, AI ETFs generated higher cumulative returns but with substantially greater volatility. Sub-period analysis further decomposes the post-COVID period into pre-ChatGPT (April 2020–November 2022) and post-ChatGPT (December 2022–January 2026) …

Women Leading In Higher Education: Exploring The Experiences Of Women Leaders In Student Affairs, Amelia Lindsay

Honors Theses

Student affairs is a field within higher education that works to support students’ out-of-classroom needs and provide them with a college experience that promotes holistic growth. This study examines the experiences of women leaders in student affairs at a mid-sized university in the southeastern United States and the opportunities and barriers they encountered in their pathways to their careers. Through in-depth, qualitative interviews, clear themes emerged regarding both facilitators of and challenges to their progression to leadership. Data show that their early life characteristics, self-perceptions, collegiate involvement, and mentorship were the largest catalysts in their career trajectories while the challenge …

Developing A Range Prediction For The Imperiled Florida Harvester Ant (Pogonomyrmex Badius) Using Species Distribution Modeling, Noah Williamson

Honors Theses

The Florida Harvester Ant (Pogonomyrmex badius) was once widespread and commonplace throughout the sandhills of the Southeastern United States, providing key ecosystem services, such as seed dispersal and soil aeration. Over recent decades, however, Florida Harvester Ant populations have declined in some areas. Current literature postulates that Red Imported Fire Ants (RIFA), and the insecticides used to manage them, as well as further human encroachment onto their habitat, all likely contributed to Florida Harvester Ant population declines. Thus, to better protect these organisms, pursue data-driven conservation efforts, and guide management practices, more information about their nest site selection, as well …

Financial Fraud In Mississippi Public Agencies: Case Studies Of Control Failures And Implications On Civic Engagement, Gracie Sullivan

Honors Theses

This study analyzes the relationship between financial fraud in Mississippi public institutions and its potential impact on civic engagement. While the existing literature explores the mechanics of fraud through frameworks such as the Fraud Triangle and the role of internal controls in preventing misconduct, limited research examines how government corruption influences civic disengagement, particularly in Mississippi. Using a quantitative, comparative research design, this study examines the relationship between major public financial fraud cases and voter turnout in case-linked and comparison counties. These cases include the Mississippi TANF welfare fraud, the Department of Corrections bribery case, and the misuse of funds …

A Comparative Analysis Of Alternative Pathways To A Law License In The United States, Katherine Willis

Honors Theses

In recent years, there has been an ongoing discussion of how bar exams may be disproportionately unfair to certain demographic groups as a standard pathway to admission to law practice. Some states have had longstanding alternate pathways to the legal profession that sidestep the bar exam and/or law school, including California, Virginia, Wisconsin, and New Hampshire. In the years following 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, other states have joined these jurisdictions in offering alternative pathways to practice that would replace the law school and/or bar exam requirements for aspiring lawyers. This thesis aims to bridge a gap in the literature …

Tuning And Performance Of Pid Controlled Low Complexity Systems, Timothy Evans

Honors Theses

Proportional integral derivative (PID) controllers are used for precise position and orientation control in systems such as autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). This project supports the University of Southern Mississippi’s (USM) Robotics Club’s RoboSub AUV effort by developing, troubleshooting, and manually tuning PID controllers to characterize tracking performance and settling time across systems of increasing complexity. Initially, the project hypothesized that tracking performance would be reduced and settling times would increase as system complexity advanced from one degree-of-freedom (DOF) to two DOF. However, prior research was found that suggests that for small disturbances around an equilibrium state, separate PID-controlled DOFs can …

Taphonomy And Fossil Record Of Eufistulana Mumia In The Owl Creek Formation Of The Mississippi Embayment, Riley Rilette

Honors Theses

This study examines the taphonomy and preservation of Eufistulana mumia, a boring bivalve, within the Owl Creek Formation of northeastern Mississippi. The formation was deposited in a shallow marine environment of Maastrichtian age within the Mississippi Embayment. A total of 66 specimens were collected from exposures within the formation and analyzed to evaluate morphometric variation and orientation patterns. Field measurements of trend and plunge of each specimen were recorded in situ using a geological compass, and specimens were later prepared and measured in the laboratory with digital calipers. Morphometric results show consistent tube morphology, with basal widths larger than distal …

The Effect Of Vibrotactile Sensory Input Devices On Improving Subjective Speech Perception For Those With Normal Hearing, Elizabeth Kalinowsky

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to evaluate how vibrotactile sensory augmentation can improve speech understanding in adverse listening conditions for those with normal hearing by providing auditory speech cues. It aimed to investigate whether there is any value of AVT devices for those with normal hearing in adverse hearing situations, where understanding speech is difficult due to background noise, reverberation, or other factors. This research project is a preliminary case study involving one participant. Tympanometry and distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) tests were conducted to verify that the participant did not appear to have hearing loss due to middle …

Reducing Computed Tomography Delay In A High-Volume Emergency Department, Sarah Ouedraogo

All Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects

Problem:

Delays in computed tomography (CT) imaging contribute to prolonged emergency department (ED) length of stay and delayed clinical decision-making. At the project site, baseline data demonstrated an average ASAP CT order-to-scan time of approximately 116 minutes for non-critical ED patients, with CT readiness compliance rates of 0%. Gap analysis identified inconsistent patient preparation and fragmented communication between ED nursing and radiology as key contributors to avoidable delays. PICOT question: In non-emergent emergency department (ED) patients (P), how does the use of a CT readiness checklist by ED nurses (I), compared with no standardized readiness checklist (C), affect patient readiness …

Does Age And Reading Activity Predict Children’S Engagement In Grandparent–Grandchild Zoom Sessions?, Breanne E. Dunn

Honors Thesis

As the digital world continues to advance, interactions that once took place in person are increasingly occurring online. Although a substantial body of research has documented the benefits of shared reading for children under six, far less is known about how these experiences and reading development unfolds in digital contexts. This study examines how structured book reading during video chat supports joint visual attention (JVA; sharing attention with another person on an object) between children (18 months to 6 years old) and their remote grandparents. The proportion of successful grandparent-initiated JVA bids throughout three different activity conditions, baseline (control), matching …

Steric And Electronic Considerations Of Ester Hydrolysis: Updating A Longstanding Physical Organic Kinetics Experiment, Mara J. Aucoin

Chemistry Theses

A current, longstanding undergraduate physical chemistry kinetics experiment uses UV-Vis spectrophotometry to follow the hydrolysis of para-nitrophenyl acetate (NPA) with an imidazole (Im) catalyst. The catalyzed and uncatalyzed reaction paths can be studied simultaneously under pseudo first order conditions ([Im]>>>[NPA]). To obtain the rate constants for the catalyzed and uncatalyzed reactions, the concentration of imidazole is varied between reactions and then plotted against the observed rate constant (k_obs).This produces a linear line where the slope is equal to the rate constant of the catalyzed reaction (k_cat) and the intercept is equal to …

Targeting Oncogenes: Development And Characterization Of Aurka And Her2 Inhibitors, Itzel Montoya

Chemistry Theses

Targeted inhibition of oncogenes has remained a key strategy in the development of more potent, effective, and less toxic therapeutic anticancer agents. Among the most clinically significant signaling pathways are those mediated by the Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 (HER2) and Aurora Kinase A (AurKA). HER2 is a member of the ErbB receptor family that supports cell growth and proliferation through downstream signaling of the PI3K and MAPK pathways and is closely linked to more aggressive tumors and therapeutic resistance. AurKA is a protein kinase essential for mitotic spindle assembly, centrosome maturation, and other key processes in cell cycle …